[kdepim-users] Still 100% CPU when using Kontact - nearly SOLVED!

[Bas G. Roufs - English]

Dear Sinclair, Ole-Erik and Everybody,

about one week ago, I opened in the Kubuntu users forum the thread 'Still 100% 
CPU when using Kontact' - with respect to persistant, complicate problems I have 
been experiencing in Kontact within Kubuntu 13.04 & KDE 4.10.5 as well as 
within several previous versions of both Kubuntu and KDE. About one week ago, 
you, Sinclair, came up with the suggestion that has solved more than 90% of my 
Kontact problems. In this message, I summarise the progress I am observing now 
with respect to Kontact. 

Let's start with a short summary. Thanks to a very useful suggestion from Sinclair, 
I can smoothly multitask, while Kontact is working in the background. Also other 
recent improvements in Kubuntu and KDE have contributed to Kontact 
becoming much more useful and practical now. This is a really major progress I 
have been hoping for ever since 2010. Gradually, KDE 4.x along with Kontact is 
reaching a mature state. 

In the subject line of this message, I write '/nearly/ SOLVED!', because two 
important points of attention still remain:
     *  the necessisity to rename the /kde/share/apps/nepomuk folder and to 
create a new one after reboot;
     *  difficulties to select an address via the KDE-Google agent. 
My findings might be useful for several other users of Kontact and KDE in 
Kubuntu and other KDE based distros. That's why, I CC this message to the list 
'KDE-PIM Users'. 

Now, I work out this summary. Let's start with the useful suggestion from 
Sinclair I have received at the 21st of September:

> When I get stuck in "nepomuk virtuoso ate my CPU" I "normally" (it has
> not happened that often lately) rename the .kde/share/apps/nepomuk
> folder and reboot. Then it WILL go mad for a while recreating the
> database but will then normalise CPU usage

On Saturday evening 21 September, I have followed up this advise from about 
20h. Central Europeanl Time onwards. After renaming the folder mentioned by 
you, Sinclair, I rebooted the system, after which I gave it the chance until about 
8.30 in the next morning to uninterruptedly recreate the database. In the mean 
time, I did nothing else at the laptop except monitoring from time to time the 
'System Load Viewer' for CPU, RAM and SWAP usage.  I also changed something 
in the energy management settings, with a view to preventing the system from 
falling asleep.

Everything happened more or less along the lines of the prediction cited above. 
Until midnight, I observed CPU usage values that were persistently calibrating 
between 60 and 100% - however, already at 8.30h in the next morning, the CPU 
usage had dropped to normal values - between 0 and 30 %.

In the past few days, it has become clear that Kontact has become really much 
more practical and useful now. I can let the system persistently file index, while I 
am multitasking. Only 5 minutes after starting up Kontact in the first working 
session of a day, I need to let the system in peace with a view to giving it the 
chance to build up an updated e-mail and RSS database. But for  the rest of the 
day, I can keep writing e-mails and carrying out other tasks,  while Kontact is 
updating it's databases in the background. The CPU usage in general calibrates 
between 0 and 30%. At some moments it still does peak to 100%, but only for a 
short moment. After such a peak, the CPU immediately falls back to 0%. As a 
matter of result, I can simply do 'everything' now while Kontact is working in the 
background. Delicious! 

A few months ago, I have limited the number of e-mails in the IMAP folder to 
1000 in the hope to be able to better handle Kontact. It helped a little bit, but 
not at all enough. Moreover, 1000 e-mails is nothing at present. That's why, I 
have decided to day to set back the settings from 1000 to 'unlimited'. That's why, 
Kontact is recreating the e-mail database right now, while I am writing this e-mail 
from within Kontact and listening to an online radio station.  Before 21 
September, such a multitasking working session would have been simply 
impossible. Moreover: even writing an e-mail while Kontact was (re)creating the 
databases, would have been simply impossible - that's why, I often needed to use  
the online e-mail editor of GMAIL instead of Kontact. 
But now, while Kontact is recreating the database, the CPU usage is constantly 
switching between 2 values only: 0% and 100% . The combination of the 
recreated database and the recent technical improvements in KDE seem to end 
up in a great result: I can still multitask, while the data base recreating process is 
working in the background. I am really very happy with this development. Thanks 
to all those who have contruted to this progress!

In my opinion, Kontact along with the rest of KDE 4.X is reaching a mature state 
now. However, two major points of attention still remain in my opinion.
 
One of them has to do with the necessity to rename and recreate a nepomuk 
database even after a fresh install of Kubuntu. Only after doing so, the recent 
technical improvements aimed at letting Kontact work in the background, 
become effective.

The second point of attention has to do with the still persistent difficulties to 
access the google address book via the 'akonadi googlecontacts resource'. I still 
do not always manage to do so - because of which I still often need to use a 
'workaround': copy-paste the addresses from the Gmail online editor. 

Finally, I dedicate a few words to your latest question, Ole-Erik:
 
> This downloaded line from 23.5.2013 came up searching "Kubuntu" history 
with
> Muon:
> 
> kubuntu-default-settings (13.04ubuntu12, 13.04ubuntu13) Oppgradert på 
10.49
> 
> Does it say anyting?

Norvegian is close enough to my mother tongue Dutch to more or less 
understand the implication of the info above. At your computer, there is a 
Kubuntu 13.04 configuration: a configuration whose 'default settings'  have been 
updated at the 25th of May 2013. 

OK, this is enough for now :-). Have a good weekend!

Respectfully yours,
Bas G. Roufs.



-- 
*/Bas G. Roufs MA/*
Utrecht, NL, E. BasRoufs at gmail.com, M. +31 6 446 835 10.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kdepim-users/attachments/20130927/67048500/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
KDE PIM users mailing list
Subscription management: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kdepim-users